Visa and Immigration Autumn Term Conference
🏷️ From £250
🎧 Admissions, marketing, senior leaders, boarding staff, bursarsÂ
đź“Ť Mill Hill School
Course Outline:Â
This conference will provide independent schools with a practical update on the changing immigration and Student sponsorship landscape.
Delegates will hear from Home Office representatives about the new BCA framework, lessons from recent UKVI inspections, sponsorship and safeguarding, emerging fraud risks and current compliance priorities.
The day will conclude with an interactive legal update and an opportunity for delegates to ask questions directly to immigration specialists.
Training topics will include
- Current immigration and Student sponsorship developments
- The new BCA framework
- Lessons from recent UKVI inspections
- Sponsorship, safeguarding and student welfare
- Home Office compliance priorities
- Immigration fraud and unregulated advice
- Maintaining robust compliance systems
- Recent legal developments and case law
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This event will be held jointly with:
   
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Programme:
09:30 – 10:00 Registration and refreshments
10:00 – 10:30 The Immigration Landscape: What Schools Need to Know Now
The immigration landscape for independent schools continues to shift. This opening session will take stock of the latest developments in Student sponsorship, including the new BCA framework, the Agent Quality Framework (AQF), increasing compliance activity and key issues emerging from the 2026 visa season. We’ll cut through what has changed, what UKVI is focusing on and what it all means for schools in practice.
Kate Hollyer, Director, BSA Legal
10:30 – 11:15 UKVI Inspections: Lessons from the Front Line
UKVI compliance visits are putting schools under increasing scrutiny, and recent cases are raising important questions about how compliance concerns are identified and escalated. This session goes behind recent inspections to examine what UKVI is looking for, where schools are being caught out and how quickly concerns can escalate. Drawing on real cases, we’ll explore emerging trends, pressure points and the practical lessons every student sponsor should know before UKVI comes knocking.
Mark Taylor, Consultant, BSA Legal
Kate Hollyer, Director, BSA Legal
11:15 – 11:45 Refreshments and networking
11:45 – 12:30 Safeguarding the International Student Journey: Panel Session
From recruitment and agent involvement through to arrival, boarding life and study breaks, safeguarding international pupils depends on effective communication between everyone involved in their journey. Opening with a short clinical perspective on what a young person in crisis needs from the adults around them, this panel will explore where safeguarding and sponsorship risks can arise, where communication and responsibilities can break down, and what schools, guardians and agents can learn when concerns emerge.
12:30 – 13:30 Networking lunch
13:30 – 14:15 Home Office Update
An official update from UK Visas and Immigration covering the latest developments in sponsorship, operational changes, compliance priorities and current areas of focus for education providers, followed by an opportunity for questions.
14:15 – 14:30 Sponsor Session
Sponsor presentation.
14:30 – 14:45 Refreshments and networking
14:45 – 15:30 Fraud, Risk & the Future of Immigration Compliance
Fraud and scams can have serious consequences for international students, their families and the organisations supporting them. Gaon Hart explores the key risks facing schools recruiting internationally, from false documents and financial manipulation to rogue agents, identity fraud and emerging digital threats. He will share practical ways schools can strengthen their controls, identify vulnerabilities and respond when concerns arise, before looking ahead to the future of immigration compliance.
Gaon Hart, Immigration Services Commissioner
15:30 – 16:30 What’s Changed, What’s Coming: Legal Update & Q&A
An interactive final session examining the latest legal developments, case law and changing compliance expectations for sponsors. We’ll look at what has changed, what may be coming next and the questions schools are grappling with in practice, with delegates invited to put their own questions directly to leading immigration specialists.
Kate Hollyer, Partner and Director, BSA Legal
Hazar El-Chamaa, Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP
16:30 Conference close
Speakers:
Kate Hollyer MTIOB, Partner and Director, BSA LegalÂ
A qualified solicitor with over 14 years’ experience in UK immigration law, Kate advises and supports members on a full range of immigration matters. Before joining BSA in 2022, Kate was Partner and Head of Department at a leading UK law firm, where she built extensive expertise in complex immigration cases. Since 2014, Kate has lived in boarding houses alongside her Housemaster husband, giving her a unique, first-hand perspective on the challenges and opportunities of boarding life.
Antonia Price, Head of Immigration, BSA LegalÂ
Antonia is Head of Immigration, joining BSA after over 20 years working in Immigration and Global Mobility across a range of industries. Antonia’s focus has always been on delivering an excellent client service by building strong and trusted relationships with her contacts and understanding their priorities and needs. She has extensive experience on a range of visa application types and the processes and requirements of the Home Office. Antonia was particularly keen to join the BSA group because her boarding school experience as a child was wonderful and she has always advocated boarding life and the positive aspects surrounding it.
Gaon Hart, Immigration Services Commissioner
Gaon is currently Immigration Services Commissioner, the regulator for immigration advisers, Chair of the Police Advisory Board for England & Wales, and NED for the NHS Counter Fraud Authority, protecting the NHS from £1.3 Billion fraud risk. He is a Board member for the Cambridge Centre for Applied Research into Human Trafficking and Chair of the Legal Advisory Board for Abitas Group’s Legal firm. He is also Managing Director of Legal Advisory Worldwide, a boutique consultancy specialising in global corporate economic crime risk prevention. He also Chairs and legally advises multiple regulatory bodies on fitness to practice hearings. As a former Senior Crown Advocate and private sector senior executive leading global corporate compliance programmes in the financial and tech sectors, he combines technical AI expertise with a pragmatic passion for effective Board governance. Gaon’s capabilities focus on building effective & trusting relationships in challenging, complex and high-profile situations.
Mark Taylor, Consultant, BSA Legal
In a previous reincarnation Mark founded The Taylor Partnership – supporting U.K. independent schools in meeting the compliance demands of their UKVI sponsor licences and training many school staff. Mark was previously a Trustee of AEGIS and, during the pandemic, assisted independent schools in creating Covid management plans and organised testing. More recently, after travelling the world, Mark has identified the increased risk to independent schools as a result of the need for greater probity and due diligence in financial awareness of school suppliers, parents and agents. Mark’s interest in this field was first sparked in 2016-17 when he supported a number of schools following the disappearance of students from Vietnam.
Hazar El-Chamaa, Partner, Penningtons Manches Cooper LLP
Hazar has over 20 years’ immigration experience and has been advising education providers on all aspects of compliance, risk management, and strategic restructuring since the inception of Tier 4. As part of the firm’s dedicated education practice, Hazar supports providers on the full lifecycle of sponsorship—from audit readiness and Home Office inspections to crisis response and licence challenges including to Home Office decisions impacting sponsors, bringing a strategic litigation perspective to compliance issues. Hazar is a frequent speaker on immigration law and gives training on sponsor compliance. She is a former chair of ILPA (Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association) and remains an active member, helping to shape the future of immigration policy. Hazar is consistently recommended in leading legal directories, including Chambers UK. Penningtons is recognised as a key link between the Home Office and the education sector, supporting institutions in implementing and responding to the ongoing changes to the UK immigration and sponsorship system.
